Members of the Law, Technology and Society group contribute to the wider discourse on public policy the law relating to technology and society through appointments to regulatory bodies, policy forums, advisory roles to both the public and private sectors, visiting appointments at other academic institutions and as part of policy or research networks. In so doing they ensure that the work carried out in the Law Department remains at the cutting edge and relevant to the policy debate. The research we carry out is research with impact, generated through connections both to wider academia and beyond in the public and private sector.
Starting with academic connections members of the Law, Technology and Society group are or have been recently visiting fellows or professors at, among other places, Sciences Po, Paris; the College of Europe, Bruges; University of Sydney; University of Melbourne; Vrije Universeit Amsterdam; and the University of Economics, Vienna. Dr. Eva Micheler is a co-investigator of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council project ‘Blockchain Technology for Algorithmic Regulation and Compliance’. This project brings together researchers from University College London and the Systemic Risk Centre at LSE. Dr. Siva Thambisetty is a Principal Investigator on a EU Horizon 2020 grant to study the Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol (2014-2019) as part of the INMARE project on Marine Biodiversity, a project that brings together researchers from 24 universities and institutes and Mr. Edmund Schuster is a Research Associate at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies.
A number of our group members contribute to the regulatory and policy debate surrounding law and technology. Professor Emily Jackson has worked with the British Medical Association and the Medical Research Council while Professor Julia Black is a member of the Prudential Regulation Committee at the Bank of England. Professor Andrew Murray was the Special Advisor to the House of Lords Communications Committee Inquiry “The Internet to regulate or not to regulate” from 2018 to 2019. Professor Pablo Ibanez Colomo is an advisor to the UK Competition and Markets Authority. Dr. Eva Micheler is both a member of the working group on digital assets hosted by the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien and Erstebank, and a member of the academic working group on intermediated securities and digital assets hosted by the University of Oxford and LSE. Dr. Valerie Verdoodt is a Vice-Chair of the Strategic Advisory Committee for Media, the official advisory body of the Flemish Minister for Media and a member of the Working Group on unhealthy food marketing and children of the Superior Health Council of Belgium. At a European level Dr. Orla Lynskey was (until Brexit) a member of the EU Commission GDPR Expert Stakeholder Group while Dr. Philipp Paech is Chairman of the EU Commission Expert Group on Regulation of Financial Innovation. Globally Dr. Siva Thambisetty is an advisor to the Fiji delegation to the UN on negotiating a new International Legally Binding Instrument on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, under UNCLOS and an Expert High Level Panellist for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, while Professor Andrew Murray is a consultant to the Ministry of Commerce and Investment for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on its project for a New e-commerce Law for Saudi Arabia.
Through our newly appointed Professor in Practice, Mark Lewis, the group has the benefit of over 35 years of his expertise, experience, insights and external representation developed as a leading UK and international technology law practitioner, gained from his service in the UK government, legal private practice and his leadership of law firms associated with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young. Mark also contributes to the group his experience as chair and non-executive director of a number of commercial and public sector boards – all in the technology sector or responsible for the delivery of technology and cyber services. Until recently, Professor Lewis was a partner and Head of the Technology & Commercial practice at international law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP.
Group members regularly give testimony and submissions to inquiries of the UK Parliament, Law Commissions, the EU Parliament and EU Commission and others.